Machiavelli

I was a crowdfunding backer on this graphic novel based on the life of Niccolo Machiavelli. This is a print collection of the webcomic of the same title.

Title: Machiavelli
Date: 2014
Publisher: Don MacDonald
Writer: Don MacDonald
Artist: Don MacDonald

Beautifully illustrated and meticulously researched, Don MacDonald's graphic novel brings Niccolo Machiavelli's life in renaissance Florence to life. Told in a series of vignettes, the story spans Machiavelli's political career, through all the turmoil and rises and falls in fortune that occurred among the warring Italian city-states of that period.

Machiavelli is presented sympathetically, with the dialogue presented in modern English (which works for the story better than an attempt to make the characters sound somehow archaic would), and the political threads are balanced out with the romantic storyline of Machiavelli's complex relationship with his wife, from whom he was often separated by the call of his duties.

The artwork is in greytones, with watercolors used for the shading, and MacDonald does a particularly good job with the architecture and the battle scenes.

The section of notes shows of the depth of MacDonald's research, providing some great starting points for anyone wishing for more reading on Machiavelli and the Italian renaissance.

Rating: 9/10